


the title of a big brother

by Livinei



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, and tony loves her and peter loves her, pepper is the goddamn best, peter gets a bit insecure for a sec but this is a fluff fic yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 17:56:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17248811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livinei/pseuds/Livinei
Summary: “All this cold-blooded betrayal,” Tony grumbles, and Peter shoots him a gleeful look, “makes me want to get a goddamn drink.”“But you’re not going to do that,” Pepper says with a content smile, and Tony gives a yielding sigh.“But I’m not going to do that,” he agrees.“Oh? No?” Peter repeats, and stares between the two of them questioningly. Tony had long ago gotten past the alcoholism problem, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still drink. Reasonably, of course, but he did.Except, now that Peter thought about it, he couldn’t quite remember seeing Tony have a drink at all recently.Tony and Pepper exchange a look that Peter can’t quite read. Then Pepper gives him a small shrug, her smile sayingwell, go on.Tony clears his throat.ORa drabble in which Peter finds out that Tony and Pepper are expecting a baby





	the title of a big brother

**Author's Note:**

> First of all I just wanna give buckets of my love and appreciation to ArdenSkyeHolmes221 and Sally0 who have left such insightful comments on my spiderman fics you two make me weep and I love you. (And Sally0 I've also really enjoyed just talking to you on tumblr!)  
> Also they're both amazingly good writers as well so thanks for giving me excellent learning material in the form of your fics! <3
> 
> That aside, this fic is short but it's purely just 150% sickly sweet sugar mesh you're gonna get fucking cavities

“I’m going to live in your home for six whole days starting now,” Peter announces as a greeting as he drops his backpack next to the door to Tony’s workshop.

“Is that supposed to scare me?” Tony mumbles past the screwdriver between his teeth, barely looking up from his work. “Because in that case we seriously need to work on your intimidation tactics, kid.”

Peter snickers and walks up to the man, peering over his shoulder.

“No, it’s just a fact you’re gonna have to deal with because Pepper said yes,” he shrugs, taking the screwdriver from the man’s mouth and setting it down next to an array of other ones. Tony snorts.

“So, this kid who I for some weird reason am very fond of, who has a flair for attracting trouble, has a _horrible_ track record of letting people know when he’s in need of help or recognizing when he’s in over his head, is notoriously bad at taking care of himself and notoriously good at giving me heart attacks - this kid decides to stay under my roof for a week, where I don’t have to be tracking his every step or calling his aunt to make sure he’s okay? _However_ will I manage?” he rolls his eyes and says with a dramatic sigh. Tony finishes up connecting a wire and straightens his back, finally turning to face Peter.

“And hello to you too, by the way,” he emphasizes, pulling Peter into a hug with one arm.

“Hi,” Peter replies, cheek squished against Tony’s shoulder, and raises his finger in a _but!_ motion, “and that’s not fair! I call you when I need help!”

“Fine, you do _now._ (“I have been for a year!”) A development which should have been elementary since the start,” Tony corrects, releasing Peter and giving him an unimpressed look without any real heat behind it, “Before that, it was Karen calling me when you were bleeding out behind a dumpster or on a rooftop. Not quite the same thing.”

“That happened only, like, twice!”

“Try six times in four months after you got the suit back,” Tony deadpans immediately, putting his hands on his hips, “I wasn’t kidding about those heart attacks, you know.”

Peter at least looks apologetic about that, giving Tony a bashful grin. Tony shakes his head, and gives Peter’s hair an affectionate ruffle in passing.

 

“So, what’d you do? May kick you out for a week? Did you leave footprints on her ceiling or something?” Tony asks later that night, an amused sparkle appearing in his eyes when Peter loads a mountain of casserole on his plate.

“I wouldn’t dare to do that,” Peter shudders and waves his hand in a vague gesture. “No, she has some sort of work thing in D.C. A training or a conference or… something.”

“Huh, al- Wait a second, but you’ve no qualms about leaving footprints on _my_ ceiling?” Tony exclaims, putting a hand over his heart, and Peter laughs, exchanging a look with a smiling Pepper.

“I have! In the _living_ area,” he stresses, looking back at Tony, “just not in your workshop.”

“My workshop _is_ my living area.”

“Pepper doesn’t live there so it doesn’t count. Where she can’t see is okay.”

“Oh, _okay,_ so it’s Pepper whose opinions matter to you,” Tony says, conjuring up an affronted look and wiping the corner of his eye, “I see how it is.”

“Well, Tony, have you ever told him _not_ to leave footprints on the ceiling?” Pepper asks with a knowing raise of her eyebrow when Tony dramatically gathers up his plate and moves to the other end of the table away from them, muttering something about _traitors_ and _favoritism_ and _unbelievable._ He shoots her a dirty glare, just barely hiding the grin threatening to break out on his face.

“That’s completely beside the point,” he says, pursing his lips and crossing his arms. If he _has_ never directly told Peter to keep the ceiling clean it has _nothing_ to do with the fact that he likes the presence of the footprints up there or anything. It’s not at all similar to the way a parent might leave his toddler’s crayon scribbles on the living room wallpaper instead of washing them off because seeing them there makes him feel all warm.

It doesn’t seem like Pepper is convinced. It looks quite the opposite.

“Sure,” she nods, and the amount of the Stark brand of sarcasm in her voice leaves him impressed. Proud even, because Tony knows that he can’t take credit for anything that makes Pepper Potts the best woman to walk this planet. But this? This is all him.

“All this cold-blooded betrayal,” Tony grumbles, and Peter shoots him a gleeful look, “makes me want to get a goddamn drink.”

“But you’re not going to do that,” Pepper says with a content smile, and Tony gives a yielding sigh.

“But I’m not going to do that,” he agrees.

“Oh? No?” Peter repeats, and stares between the two of them questioningly. Tony had long ago gotten past the alcoholism problem, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still drink. Reasonably, of course, but he did.

Except, now that Peter thought about it, he couldn’t quite remember seeing Tony have a drink at all recently.

Tony and Pepper exchange a look that Peter can’t quite read. Then Pepper gives him a small shrug, her smile saying _well, go on._ Tony clears his throat.

“Yeah, well. Pep is in a bit of a situation and we agreed that if she can’t drink then I can’t either,” he says, and Pepper gives him an unwavering look.

“You are not calling our baby a _situation,_ ” she says, and Tony snorts into his mouthful of casserole.

“You’re right and I’m sorry,” he nods obediently after swallowing it, and responds to her incredulous stare with a sweet smile. A pile of rice and zucchini falls off Peter’s fork.

“So, uh, yep, not drinking,” Tony concludes and looks back at Peter with a faux flippant expression, but his eyes are shining.

Tony thinks if Peter were a cartoon character, his eyes would have big white stars in them right now.

“You’re going to have a _baby?!_ ” he squeaks, not even finding the time to look embarrassed at his voice skipping three octaves, and soft laughter escapes Pepper.

“We’re going to have a baby,” she confirms, and looks at Tony across the table with a wide grin when Peter scrambles out of his seat and smothers her with a hug.

“Oh my god, _oh my god,_ you’re- Congratulations, oh my god, this is amazing,” he all but cries, darting over to Tony and positively crashing into him, squeezing as hard as he dares without crushing his ribs, “you’re having a _child!_ This is possibly the greatest news I’ve ever heard, holy shit- When’s the baby coming? Do you know if it’s a girl or a boy? Do you have names? Who else knows? Oh, oh, can I tell May? You didn’t tell May before me, did you?”

Tony laughs out loud and runs his hand though the kid’s hair when Peter hits him with all the questions in one breath.

“Slow down, Spiderling, the baby’s not going anywhere,” he teases, the corners of his eyes crinkling in laughter.

“It’s been almost three months, a little less, so we’re not meeting it anytime soon. Happy and Rhodey know, and Pep’s parents, and now you. And yes, you can tell May,” he rolls his eyes, then narrows them, “but other than that you zip it, okay? If my unborn child is tomorrow’s number one trending topic then I’ll know who to come after.”

Peter nods vigorously.

“When are you telling the public?” he asks immediately.

“Soon enough,” Pepper promises, biting back a smile at how Tony’s hand remains around Peter’s shoulders after the boy has satisfied his needs of hugging.

 

“Hey, Tony?” Peter says on Wednesday as soon as he walks out of his room. Tony looks at him from the kitchen counter, a fresh cup of coffee steaming in his hand, hair sticking up at odd angles.

“G’morning,” he mumbles after a deep inhale, though he doesn’t particularly look like he thinks it’s a good morning. Tony has no problem staying up until 6:30 in the morning, but _getting up_ at that time is a whole different story, and not one he much enjoys. But Peter has long since given up trying to convince the man that he doesn’t have to get up when Peter goes to school when he stays over in the middle of the week.

“Good morning. Hey, listen now, because this is important,” Peter says, stopping in front of Tony and looking at him seriously until Tony’s eyes focus on him.

“I’m going to babysit your baby. And by that I mean can I _please_ babysit your baby? I’ll be the world’s best babysitter, I swear!”

Tony looks at him for a few more seconds, waiting for his brain to catch up, and then his expression turns into that of sleepy fondness.

“Can you- Kid, I’m _counting_ on you to babysit my baby.”

 

Peter already has so much love for the baby Stark he thinks he’s going to burst. And he _knows_ that baby is going to have the best parents in the world.

But there is also a small ugly inkling of a thought that starts to eat at him, that hides behind his heart and raises its small ugly head when no one is looking.

 _But what of me?_ it whispers.

Being a new parent is not easy. Babies need a lot of time, care, attention. And love. _He’s_ not Tony’s child, no matter how much he thinks of the man as a father figure.

 _He’s not going to disregard you because he gets a baby, idiot._ Tony would never do that, he knows. Tony cares about him.

He’s not Tony’s child.

And Peter can’t help but think that he’s going to matter less and less when the baby is born.

Of course he’s not jealous of the baby, never. He’s just… a bit sad.

 

The decision to tell the public comes a few weeks after Peter found out about the pregnancy. Pepper’s baby bump is starting to show, so they can’t really postpone it much longer.

“Cool,” Tony says when Pepper brings it up, “I’ll do a press conference.”

“Tony, we don’t need to do a press conference to announce we’re having a baby,” Pepper says, less disbelieving than she thinks she should have been. “Don’t you think that’s a bit of an overkill?”

“It’s absolutely an overkill,” Tony shrugs, and gives her a flashing grin, “But my baby gets a press conference.”

And his baby gets a press conference. A live broadcast of it at that.

Pepper doesn’t go, saying she doesn’t want to talk to the press, but she and Peter settle on the grand couch in the living room and put the live transmission on the big screen.

“I’m sure you all are wondering,” Tony starts, walking in front of the podium in an unhurried pace with a charismatic smile reserved for the press, hands in his pockets, “what this is all about and all that. Well, I’m not going to dance around it - when have I _ever?_ ”

He gives the crowd a moment to laugh, and spreads his arms.

“I’ve been sitting on this for a little while now, so I’ll just give it to you straight, just this once,” he makes a meaningful pause, watching the room hold its breath,”Pepper and I are having a child.”

The walls rumble as the crowd whoops and applauds. Peter whoops as well, and Pepper gives him a playful shove.

The press has a lot of questions.

“Do you think your child is going to be a superhero when he or she grows up?” one asks, and Tony represses a shudder, laughing instead.

“Not if I can help it.”

Just _one_ superheroing kid was giving him enough stress to last for a lifetime. Two would be the death of him.

“Does that mean Stark Industries finally has an heir?” another one asks, and Tony smirks.

“Jeez, the kid hasn’t even been born yet,” he says lightly, and makes a vague gesture, “But SI _does_ have an heir.”

Only Pepper notices the missing _finally,_ and smiles, sneaking a glance at Peter next to him.

“You, back there,” Tony points.

“Do you already have a name in mind for your first child?” she asks, and Tony smiles under his breath. Most of the reporters probably miss it, but Peter has seen that smile a hundred times. It’s a Peter-smile.

“Oh, that baby’s not gonna be my first child,” he says, voice casual and almost dismissive, “I already have a kid.”

The last time the crowd exploded that suddenly was when Tony Stark declared he was Iron Man.

Peter chokes.

The press conference continues, but he doesn’t quite process the sounds over the beating in his chest. _I already have a kid._ Pepper’s hand gently rests on his shoulder and he looks at her with wide watery eyes.

_I already have a kid._

“Does he mean-” he stammers, and her smile is so warm.

“You. He means you,” she says, and Peter makes a strangled sound.

Pepper pulls him into her arms when Peter’s lip starts quivering and the shine in his eyes spills out onto his cheeks.

“How does the title of a big brother sound, Peter Parker?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for taking your time to read! I hope you enjoyed it, and please do leave me a comment to let me know what you thought! (i thrive off of those)


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